Bentalls Shopping Centre working with Blackline Creative and Kingston School of Art
KSA have been working with Bentalls and Blackline Creative on creating exciting and engaging interventions in vacant shopping units across the Bentalls Centre in Kingston.
In April – May 2019 KSA had a 10 day residency in a vacant store F22 with multiple activations:
24 hour Hack
Portraits while you wait
Storytelling Workshop
“We entered unchartered waters with the Kingston School of Arts, collaborating with their students to bring a series of student lead exhibition and installations in Bentall Centre. The outcome was truly astounding, merging innovation, creativity and expertise, taking a unique approach to engaging shoppers and providing them truly memorable experiences. This new and dynamic concept puts student’s talents centre stage for all to enjoy. What a fantastic partnership and this is just the start”
“We challenged KSA to challenge the status quo and challenge it they did. They curated a blended showcase of talented performances and art installations, which struck a chord with all visitors. We wanted to provoke, surprise, delight, engage and immerse consumers in art and experiences that they wouldn’t normally have access to or happen upon in their daily travails. The Showcase experience is in our view the green shoots of changing how our destination works for the people of Kingston. And 10 out of 10 for collaboration, commitment, camaraderie and sheer bloody hard work in delivering the showcase ”
“As a Design Marketing student at KSA, working with the Bentall Centre and Blackline on the BCXhibition was an eye-opening experience for me. The PR & Marketing internship gave me a real insight into what working in the business is like”
The installation was featured in Creative Review and 18 other publications and had over 2 million impressions on social media on the hashtag #BCXHIBITION
Don’t take our word for it - here’s what some of our visitors thought:
“I think that this has been amazing! I found out about it through instagram and it looked very good, and I thought to myself that it can’t be that good. But when I came here I was really surprise how well done it is. The kids are really enjoying it and it is also a learning prospect for them .Getting to to test out all the differentthings. It is so much better than just sitting at home in front of the telly all weekend.I really like it.”
“ I find it really good that the kids get to explore their creativity. And my daughter gets to learn the different colours and shapes. She sees all these things on Tv, so why not let her explore it in real life”
“ I think this is a great idea, it is a way to show some of the new technology that’s out there! And there is also a lot of things that I didn’t even know existed”
“I think it is really cool, I think it is nice to see what the students are doing. But I think it is so nice because it is so different to what you usually see in the Bentall Centre, I have never seen anything like this”
“This is very good! Because my husband and my children were here last weekend. And my husband built his own 3D printer with the kids, and he was really impressed by the way you guys do the hackspace. He thinks the people that work here are very kind.He is very very pleased. And my daughter really loves the VR headset, and she also love the arts. So the drawing robots. It is so good to see the kids socialising as well. My daughter and only been here a couple of minutes and she was already making a new friend. They started engaging and drawing together. It is all very very good. I like that it is family friendly and educational”